Man partially bites off partners lip, strikes him with car

Andrew Lee Archer

By Joe Johnson

A domestic dispute between partners from Bulloch County ended up in Athens with one man partially biting off the other’s lip and allegedly running into him with a car.

It’s unclear what caused the men to argue but Andrew Archer and his partner, Steven Randall have been living together for two years in Statesboro and Saturday night’s incident reportedly wasn’t the first time that they’d physically fought.

From interviews with them, and with footage from their car’s video camera, police pieced together the following account of what happened:

After leaving a bar downtown, Archer was driving a Lexus GS 300 on West Hancock Avenue, with Randall in front and a man from Athens in the back.

After the partners began to argue, Archer stopped the car and told the others to get out.

Randall walked around to the front of the car and was making hand gestures when Archer moved the Lexus forward and “bumped” Randall.

With his partner continuing to gesture, “Archer revs the engine and drives the vehicle into Steven, hitting Steven in both legs,” and causing him to land on the car’s hood, according to the arresting officer’s report.

The men then “begin engaging in mutual combat inside and outside” of the Lexus, and while they are no longer visible in the car’s video “an extremely intense struggle” could be heard.

Archer then backed the car into someone’s fence and drove away.

Nearly simultaneously a woman called 911 to report her fence was damaged by a hit-and-run driver and Randall called to say he’d been involved in a domestic altercation.

A responding officer found the victim on North Chase Street, his face bloodied and lip lacerated, and he was subsequently transported by ambulance to the hospital.

After leaving the scene of the previous incident, Archer crashed the Lexus into another vehicle at Newton and West Broad streets. He tried to flee on foot but was arrested by a police officer who chased after him through several yards.

Smelling of alcohol and showing clear signs of intoxication, Archer told police he had no memory of anything that happened from the time he left the bar until he was arrested.

He was charged with aggravated assault, DUI, leaving the scene of an accident, improper driving, and criminal trespass/interference with property.

On Thursday he remained in pretrial detention after having been denied bail by a Magistrate Court judge.